Spend It! Spend It! Spend It!

A song from the Distant England cycle. It's about getting older, seizing the day, friendship and probably says a lot about me and Graeme.

Words and melody: Graeme Hobbs

Music: me and Graeme

It's the sort of song we used to play in the old band and I've tried to keep it simple with just guitar, bass and drums. Pretty rough and ready and not very sophisticated but it would have been great for dancing. A pity I couldn't get a fiddle on it to give it that real folk/punk feel.

If we tallied every pint and short we've had the pleasure to have downed
And with that quantity of liquid it's wonder we've not drowned
It's too late to say you're sorry when we're out and on the town
so stick your hand deep in your pocket cos I think that it's your round

The people I was warned about in the days when I was young
were the people who were up for it and out and having fun
cos it's too late when you're 60 and 60 years have gone
So get out and spend your money now on women, wine and song

Spend it, spend it spend it spend it
Spend the bloody lot until it's gone
Spend it, spend it spend it spend it
You'll be doing right by doing wrong

I'll meet you face down in the gutter we can talk about old times
We can talk about the loves we lost cos we're partners in crime
You saved me from sobriety and I can't thank you enough
You've always been my bestest mate whenever things got rough

We can call each other Hayley as we whistle down the wind
And we never tire of telling of the stars we should have been
with the other bar philosophers unsteady stood the test
And one day when we can do no more life will lay us down to rest

Spend it, spend it spend it spend it
Just like the words you're hearing in this song
Spend it, spend it spend it spend it
Until the last gulp of life is downed and gone

tubthumping
On the first few bars I thought it was going in to the Universe Song by Monty Python then it segued into a sort of Levellers drinking song meets Hurry up Harry and Chumbawumbas Tubthumping. Good production and clear and to the point. You made me thirsty. get the drinks in. Cheers

Spend It! Spend It! Spend It!
Entertainment in music to the extreme and very foot tappy as well.This has inspired me Dick. Catchy as velcro maybe even more so. Love the definite ending with it's playout.

New Brighton!
Hayley Mills was always a bit of a fantasy figure when I was younger (I didn't realise it was the same for Graeme who wrote the words). I just checked on her and discovered she married Roy Boulting who was 33 years her senior and is now married to bloke 20 years her junior. Way to go Hayley :-)

Thanks for the listen and comments Dave. We played in some real dives....

Front-end...loaded!
Hah, yeah, Dave, I did that indeed. As they say in the mortgage biz, my party days were indeed "front-end loaded." Loaded, indeed. So yes, I'd down another pint to this one in a pub, anyway.

Spend It! Spend It! Spend It!
Hi Dick. I was away fishing for a week when this was posted and I missed it when I was playing catchup. Sorry. Great song. Really like the lyrics and the tubthumping vibe. Had me thinking Richard Thompson. Sizzling outro. Thanks to you both. Take care.

11 years here (at time of writing!) - it doesn't seem that long ago I wrote "it doesn't seem that long ago I wrote 5 years"...
Older but no wiser.
The musical projects that make up Amokopera are now complete and Distant England (the story of... [see more]

The terms alternative rock and alternative music[1] were coined in the early 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired music genres which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. At times it was used as catch-all phrase for rock music from under